Google announced earlier this week that it is building a new data center in Minnesota. The data center will be powered by a combination of wind, solar and a very unique battery manufactured by startup Form Energy that can be discharged continuously for several days.
The price tag for the feat of electrochemical engineering is now known to be around $1 billion, according to the Information newspaper.
Form Energy’s giant air-iron battery can provide 300 megawatts of power continuously for 100 hours. In a sense, it works through breathing. When oxygen is pumped into the cell, the iron rusts and electrons are released. The battery will work to smooth the flow of electrons from 1.4 gigawatts of wind power and 200 megawatts of solar power.
The startup has been tinkering with the technology for years and has built a factory in West Virginia to produce batteries. But until this recent deal with Google, the company had not gained any major customers.
Big orders are planned, and Foam Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo said the company is in the process of raising $500 million in funding. According to PitchBook, Form has raised $1.4 billion to date. The company plans to go public next year.